Been keeping an eye on this title for awhile. Do I need to play the previous entries in the series before diving into this one?

It might help. There are going to be things that happened in both of them that will explain what's going on in the third. Well, at least, they said that stuff that happened in both of them would affect what was going on in it. The first one is definitely worth playing. Very fun, and I can say that listening to Claudia Black's voice the entire game with Morrigan by your side definitely enhances the experience (she was Aeryn in Farscape and in the Queen of the Damned movie). The second one was serviceable, though the dungeons were reused OVER AND OVER which made it a bit boring at times. The story was fairly interesting, though, and some of the side characters were fun. All in all, I'm glad I played both of them before this second one comes out! And, definitely looking forward to this one!

It seems like there's a general lack of direction or central vision in Dragon Age as a series, both thematically and in gameplay. After watching this trailer I had a hard time figuring out what I was supposed to be excited about, or what was going to be better in this game compared to the previous ones.

On top of the discovery that Origin was accessing users' tax programs in Germany, I simply don't trust EA enough to install any of their software on my PC.

That's pretty unsubstantiated. The source is not very reliable and has not been confirmed by any 3rd party. Do you really think EA wants your tax and cell phone information? Enough so that they would risk their entire business model?

Origin is fine, and you can even launch Origin games through Steam Big Picture provided Origin is running and you are logged in. I would prefer games just be in Steam, but Origin is really not as bad as everyone makes it out to be.

Been keeping an eye on this title for awhile. Do I need to play the previous entries in the series before diving into this one?

The first two do some plot and setting exposition, and in all likelihood a few of the decisions you could make would have minor consequences.

Personally, DA:O is a fantastic game, and DA:2 had flaws, but if you go in knowing what the big issues are, it's still a good RPG overall. So you should still give them a try.

DA:2 has 3 main flaws IMHO. First, they heavily heavily heavily re-used maps. You'll explore the same cave countless times with different entrances and exits each time. It's stupid. Second, the combat isn't as strategic as DA:O. More AoE spam and the enemy just randomly adds mobs. Most importantly, it tried to be epic in time rather than space, following your main character across 7 years but remaining mostly in the city of Kirkwall, with questionable success. However, in most other respects, such as the side characters, the side quests, the world, it's still pretty good.

Well considering Skyrim was a vast but extremely shallow ocean, it will be interesting to see how this one pans out. I'm assuming we will be able to control multiple characters at once and not just a single one?

I'd also have to agree with other commentators - learn the lessons from the past and wait until a good couple weeks at least after release before spending your money. Never pre-order. Never.

Been keeping an eye on this title for awhile. Do I need to play the previous entries in the series before diving into this one?

Unlike Mass Effect, you're a different character in each part of the trilogy. But choices the first character made had some minor impact on the story for the second. They're introducing the Dragon Age Keep as a general solution to allow old and new players to build the world's history by selecting the choices from the previous games, in case you didn't play every expansion, lost your saved games, or haven't played at all. Still, part of the fun is interacting with old characters again, some of which are shown in the trailer; so if you don't really know them, the effect is diminished.

As others said, DA:Origins (not to be confused with EA's game platform Origin) was "universally acclaimed", and I liked DA II too, although the complaints about reused maps are spot-on. The biggest problem for most seemed to be the ending, somewhat akin to the meltdown with ME3, although not nearly as bad.

Origin is fine, and you can even launch Origin games through Steam Big Picture provided Origin is running and you are logged in. I would prefer games just be in Steam, but Origin is really not as bad as everyone makes it out to be.

I agree Origin is fine, but DA:2 was never released on Steam and it seems unlikely that this one will be available via Steam either. So being able to launch through Steam is a moot point.

Origin is fine, and you can even launch Origin games through Steam Big Picture provided Origin is running and you are logged in. I would prefer games just be in Steam, but Origin is really not as bad as everyone makes it out to be.

I agree Origin is fine, but DA:2 was never released on Steam and it seems unlikely that this one will be available via Steam either. So being able to launch through Steam is a moot point.

DA2 was actually originally available on Steam before EA pulled it because Steam had some standardization with the way patches and updates were applied and EA basically was too greedy. If you purchased it before it was pulled, you can still download/play it via Steam. I know, because that's how I played it.

I don't think Origin's as bad as some people say (I'm not wearing a tinfoil hate) - but unlike a LOT of other people that are out there, I vote with my wallet, I don't like Origin, so I won't be buying this (like ME3) if it isn't out on Steam. I love the Steam platform, they can have all my money (they already get it), and I like to fund forward thinking, consumer friendly vehicles. EA has never demonstrated the goodwill to consumers that Steam has, and until they consistently do, they're not getting my locked in "vote" via my wallet.

And you know what? I don't miss playing Mass Effect 3. Or Call of Battlefield whatever. I have so many games in my backlog that I don't care.

Been keeping an eye on this title for awhile. Do I need to play the previous entries in the series before diving into this one?

I know you have a lot of answers to this one already, but in my opinion: Play Dragon Age: Origins because it's a good game, gives an overview of the world you're in and ends rather differently depending on how you play it. Skip DA2. The overarching story of DA2 is not too bad, but the game has many many flaws that make a complete run through more hard work than fun. Essentially what happens in it can be summarized as follows:

Spoiler: show

Mages in this world are powerful but dangerous. They are potential gateways for demons to enter the world, if they lose control. Because of this, mages are under the control of the church, which can decide when a mage is too dangerous and must be lobotomized. In DA2, the church exceeds its authority and mistreats mages, which leads to a rebellion by the mages. The player can try to aid the mages or the church, but that doesn't change anything - the story ends the same way no matter what

Been keeping an eye on this title for awhile. Do I need to play the previous entries in the series before diving into this one?

If you don't have a huge backlogs of games, then they are cheap enough to buy for a play through. The first one was very good, the second had a better story in my opinion but the gameplay wasn't good. For continuation purpose play the first one first since I think that's what the next release is going to focus on.

Bioware (under EA's expert guidance) has developed a knack for driving series into the ground. After being burned by Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age 2 (and we might as well throw Crysis 3 in the mix as well), I am not touching this game until Origin starts having Steam-like sales and drops the price below $10.

Maybe this is just the effect of age, but I feel like I used to be able to find a lot of rough diamonds in gaming and now everything is a highly polished turd.

I've had mixed feelings about some of the last few Bioware games. DA2 had some major problems, but I don't think it was so bad as some people say. I thought ME3 was pretty good overall and there were parts I absolutely loved. However, as a fan of KotOR 2 (it's my single favorite game), I was very, VERY upset with SWTOR.

I'm cautiously optimistic about this release. We'll see what happens. I think there are some good people at Bioware, and as for EA, I get the sense they are rethinking their strategy after the (justified) consumer backlash the past two years. I haven't been nearly as pissed off at them lately (Dungeon Keeper excluded).

As for Origin, it's not really that big of a deal. It's a pretty lightweight client and generally stays out of the way. I didn't like it initially for several reasons, but I have no problem with it these days.

Been keeping an eye on this title for awhile. Do I need to play the previous entries in the series before diving into this one?

The first two do some plot and setting exposition, and in all likelihood a few of the decisions you could make would have minor consequences.

Personally, DA:O is a fantastic game, and DA:2 had flaws, but if you go in knowing what the big issues are, it's still a good RPG overall. So you should still give them a try.

DA:2 has 3 main flaws IMHO. First, they heavily heavily heavily re-used maps. You'll explore the same cave countless times with different entrances and exits each time. It's stupid. Second, the combat isn't as strategic as DA:O. More AoE spam and the enemy just randomly adds mobs. Most importantly, it tried to be epic in time rather than space, following your main character across 7 years but remaining mostly in the city of Kirkwall, with questionable success. However, in most other respects, such as the side characters, the side quests, the world, it's still pretty good.

Yeah, I personally really liked the exploration of religion, power and terrorism that the structure of DA2 allowed, but I understand why people felt like they lost some things from the original.

As others said, DA:Origins (not to be confused with EA's game platform Origin) was "universally acclaimed", and I liked DA II too, although the complaints about reused maps are spot-on. The biggest problem for most seemed to be the ending, somewhat akin to the meltdown with ME3, although not nearly as bad.

DA2's main problem was that the development of the story had very little to do with what you did. Characters you killed in DA:O could return alive, because the story author liked them. You could actually finish the second act in a sort of cheesy way (giving up one of your characters to avoid the big boss fight), but all reactions in the game were as if you had fought the big bad. No matter which side you pick in the big story, you get the exact same fights and the exact same outcomes in the entire third act. You could pretty much randomly click buttons all through the game and just watch, it didn't really matter - all the dialogue options lead to the same outcome, the fights were just button-mashing with no strategy, and you couldn't even equip your companions beyond picking their weapons.

The good thing is that Bioware seems to have learned its lesson. They're not entirely disowning DA2, but they at least show that they have understood why their core fans dislike it so much. Main problem now is that most reviews of DA2 were quite positive, so I'm not sure who to trust when reading reviews of the new game.

Origin is bad enough, but EA has also been bundling additional DRM schemes like securom and sony release control into their games.

On top of the discovery that Origin was accessing users' tax programs in Germany, I simply don't trust EA enough to install any of their software on my PC.

This is my personal experience, and cannot speak for others.

I have had no problems with Origin, having used it since Dead Space 3 came out. For a long time I was quite leery of it and just assumed I wouldn't play Dragon Age 2 (didn't get it on steam) Mass Effect or any other reindeer games.I finally jumped with Dead Space 3.I haven't regretted it.

That said, the *only* games I've purchased through Origin are those which are explicitly denied me on Steam. All the 3 games... Dead Space, Mass Effect, *cough*sims*cough*, Crysis... and probably Dragon Age.So basically, only EA's games.

My fight with uPlay is the same... The only reason it's installed is for Rocksmith, which I bought through Steam. Because fuck uPlay. (And the reason I buy Ubisoft games for my Wii. And now fuck Ubisoft.)

I would say that, for most people, avoiding Origin is a totally great proposition because Steam has managed to brainwash just about everyone with excellent sales, good value-added propositions, and incredibly innocuous DRM.

Origin *might* catch up sometime in the next couple of years; they just bribed me with a free copy of Dead Space 1. (They bribed everyone, btw...)

I'd say that, If you want to play Dragon Age 3, do it. Legally or not, but vote with your wallet. If I choose to invest another few hundred hours in an EA game, I'll do it through Origin.

DA:2 has 3 main flaws IMHO. First, they heavily heavily heavily re-used maps. You'll explore the same cave countless times with different entrances and exits each time. It's stupid. Second, the combat isn't as strategic as DA:O. More AoE spam and the enemy just randomly adds mobs. Most importantly, it tried to be epic in time rather than space, following your main character across 7 years but remaining mostly in the city of Kirkwall, with questionable success. However, in most other respects, such as the side characters, the side quests, the world, it's still pretty good.

Yeah, I personally really liked the exploration of religion, power and terrorism that the structure of DA2 allowed, but I understand why people felt like they lost some things from the original.

I figure it's also some element of EA-hate, thanks to EA buying BioWare. If EA tapped Obsidian to create DA2, I'd expect the Internet to yell just as loudly about how EA is crap, but people should give DA2 a try.

I'm assuming we will be able to control multiple characters at once and not just a single one?

The previous games were party of four: you and up to three at a time from a pool of companions that you recruit. From the trailer, it looks like that pool can potentially have about a dozen; the previous games had about eight. And supposedly none are from DLC, they're all in the box.

I want to be excited and hopeful, but two was such a steaming pile after Origin. Same maps, wildly different Qunari, awful, plodding story, one hard-locked character, and (for me, at least) a game-breaking bug that blocked all my progress during the burning city mission.